Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A59274
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A sermon preached in a congregation in the city of Exon on the thanks-giving day, Thursday, April 16, 1696 / by a minister of the Gospel.
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Minister of the Gospel.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S2638; ESTC R35167
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18,147
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32
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their Virtue or eminent for some notable Exploits or some remarkable Atchievements Thus the Heathens advanced their Hero's into the number of their Gods and the Papists pay Divine Honours to their Cannonized Saints For nothing more common with these latter than to address their supplications to St. Francis and St. Dominick the Virgin Mary c. But such a Worship as this is false-worship because terminated upon a wrong Object and is a most apparent affront to the great God who will not have this honour given to another Isa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to another To pay a Religious respect to any other than God is an express violation of the first command which peremptorily says Thou shalt have no other Gods before me The Worship of the Samaritans of old which was of this sort was therefore censured by our Saviour with an Ye worship ye know not what John 4.22 Samuel well knowing the temper of the Israelites how prone they were to relapse into Idolatries how ready to present their Devotions to the Heathen Deities does here advise them to serve God in truth with an utter rejection of all the Heathen Idoâ—s whatever He would have them to confine their Worship only to the true God to the glorious Jehovah in opposition to all false Gods and Gentile Deities For God is the only proper Object of Religious Worship therefore says our Saviour Matth. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Persons ought to worship him exclusively without admitting any into Partnership with him For he will not suffer a Rival in his Honour Psal 50.15 Call upon me not upon a Saint or an Angel in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee None have power to save as God therefore none should have such honour as he 2 Worship may be false as to the Medium of it God has declared in his sacred Word in what way and by what means he will be honoured and adored He knows what ways of Worship are most suitable to his own Nature and so what will be most acceptable to himself Therefore it is no way reasonable that in these matters every man should be left to his own wild fancy For we find from experience that when persons have taken upon them a liberty or licence rather to prescribe Modes of Worship they have fixed upon such trifling such ludicrous and sometimes barbarous Rites as nothing comport with so holy so merciful so awful a Being as God is so that God himself has all the reason to determine of those Modes by which he will be honoured and adored And he has positively prescribed the way in which he will have men to pay him Homage As our Worship must be confined to God as the solitary Object of it so the way of it must be limited by his sacred Will Men must not make their own Imaginations the Rule of Worship That is not currant Coin which has not Caesar's Image and Superscription upon it and that is not true and warrantable Worship which has not the stamp of a Divine Authority God has set us bounds in the Matter of his Worship to which we dare not make any additions and from which we are not allowed to make any defalcations Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you A like passage you find Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish therefrom God will not allow any Men to make either additions to or substractions from his own Worship If Men substract from the Worship of God and wilfully neglect what he has prescribed they daringly affront his Soveraignty and quarrel at his Commands If they add to his Institutions and appoint more parts of Worship than he has done they arraign his Wisdom as if he had not contrived wisely enough for his own Honour as if he wanted wisdom for the Instituting of his own Worship It savours of an intolerable piece of Arrogancy for any Man to presume that he can prescribe to God or make any advantageous additions to his own Appointments Such an one forgets the narrowness of his own Intellectuals as well as the All-comprehensiveness of the Divine VVisdom He does but display his own folly who goes about to teach the Omniscient Deity what ought to be adopted into his VVorship But to conclude this God must not be worshipped according to the little Model of our fancies but according to his own Appointments Not according to our Inventions but his own Institutions not according to our Imaginations but according to the Line of his own Revelations not according to Men's extravagant suggestions but his own wise prescriptions VVhoever offers to God a VVorship which he has not authorized does not serve him but rather affront him Hence it was that Samuel studying and designing the good and welfare of the Israelitish People advises them to offer to God a true VVorship a VVorship which he would approve and accept that so he might still continue to be their propitious Governour and their bountiful Benefactor 2. As persons must worship God with a worship that is true as to the matter of it so it must be right as to the manner it must be offered to the glorious Object of it with all the heart As fearing and serving of God in truth is here in my text put in opposition to all false worship so I humbly conceive the serving of God with all the heart is put in opposition to all dissimulation and Hypocrisie Too many worship God with their bodies when their hearts are estranged from him They offer him the outward Man and deny him the Soul Present him with the Carcass of devotion whenas there is no spirit to animate it They give him the bended knee and the hand lifted up whilst their minds are wandring after Vanity Of such kind of worshippers as these is the complaint Matth. 15.8 9. This people draweth nigh to me with their mouths and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me Were there no more bodies sometimes in the most thronged Assemblies then there are Souls how small would the number be How often do men dissemble in their Duties and offer to their God a skin instead of a Sacrifice so that altho their worship may be pompous yet it is not sincere and will not meet with acceptance from him who looks beyond the surface and penetrates the very secrets of the Soul God does not only expect that worship men present him should be true as to the matter but sincere as to the manner Some in the Duties of Religion are just like a person who takes his Scabbard and offers it to his prince but imploys his sword in another's service They will bring
their bodies into the places of worship and put them in a posture of reverence whilst their affections perhaps shall be committing folly with some darling Idol erected in the fancy But in vain do such worshippers presume upon accepta nce An all-seeing eye easily discerns the fallacie and a God of truth abominates it When the Soul the choicest part of man as Ingaged in his worship is actively imployed in his service then does he smell a sweet savour in it Pro. 23.26 My Son give me thy heart In all the Solemn and Sacred duties which men do perform in all the Devotions they present to their God he demands their hearts and affections without which all the most glittering shews and gaudy pretences imaginable will amount to no more than a specious vanity Lactantius de justit Lib. 5. Cap. 20. speaking of the excellency of the Christian Religion as unconceivably surmounting that of the Heathen says Illic nihil exigitur aliud quam sanguis pecudum fumus inepta libatio hic bona mens purum pectus innocens vita Go amongst the Heathens and there is nothing but the blood of beasts a little vanishing smoke and ridiculous Sacrificing but with us there is a good mind a pure heart and an innocent life The Christians presented God not with slain beasts but with pure hearts And says the same Author just before Nostra Religio tota in animo colentis est quia mentem ipsam pro Sacrificio habet Our Religion lies in the mind of the worshipper and we offer up our Souls to God for a Sacrifice But too too many Christians of latter ages have strangely degenerated from the primitive practice and have sat down satisfied with a few external and lazy devotions Amongst the Papists it must be confessed they have a very pompous theatrical worship but there is little of Soul or Spirit in it Many amongst those of the Reformed Churches are too prone to please themselves with some externals of worship and splendid formalties But alas the most accurate external observances will ne're attract the favourable eye of God when there is an absence of the heart All acceptable worship must arise from the Center of the Soul for God is a Spirit John 4.24 and nothing will please him but a spiritual worship Well then the affections must animate all our devotions and the whole heart must be found an ingredient in all our services All the powers all the faculties of the Soul must be seriously imployed in every part of worship we at any time engage in not only the understanding to apprehend the nature of the duties they are to perform but the will and affections must be active too Every faculty ought to be vigorous and wakeful when persons are making their Religious addresses to the glorious King no power should be dull or sleepy As for instance in the duty of Prayer the whole Soul ought to be engaged in it The understanding should be imployed in the consideration of God's glorious perfections of our unworthiness to appear before him of the many wants we labour under and of Gods both ability readiness to supply all our necessities The will ought to be engaged in purposing the renuntiation of the sins which we own in confession and in resolving a discharge of the duties which we beg the grace to perform Our affections should all be shining and active when we view over the glorious perfections of the Deity such as Almightiness Immensity Infinite knowledge Justice and holiness we should call up the passion of fear see to have our minds possessed with a Reverential awe at the thoughts of so termendous a Majesty When we recount his Grace and his Mercy his Goodness and his Bounty our Souls should be enflamed with love Our hatred should rise against sin when we acknowledge it with its heightning circumstances and our desires should be carried out with a great deal of warmth after grace and glory Thus when the powers of the Soul have each their respective activities in duty then is God served with all the heart 3. The third particular I proposed to speak to is the Motive imployed to inforce the duty prescribed The consideration of the great things which God has done for a people should be a powerful argument with them to induce them to serve the Lord in truth and with all the heart The Command of God does oblige and should engage persons to serve and adore him with sincerity zeal and affection But God's mercy his goodness his bounty should be an additional perswasive When God with gracious and merciful providences attends a people it is but equitable they should return him A tribute of thanks and adoration Signal favours and seasonable deliverances strongly plead with them to present him with their best and their choicest services Such returns as these should persons make 1. Upon the account of Graditude Men ought to make thankful returns to their glorious preserver and their bountiful benefactor for all the miracles of mercy he has shewed them When the arm of the Lord has brought them Salvation they should express their thankful sense of it by devout adorations a loyal observance of all his injunctions The Israelites had an ample experience of the indulgent care of Heaven towards them God in his wise and powerful providence often appeared so signally for them as that it was to the astonishment of their enemies and their own admiration What an amazing what a surprizing deliverance did he gloriously accomplish for them at the Red-Sea In what a miraculous way did he support and sustain them during their long peregrination in the Wilderness In how wonderful a manner did he introduce them into the promised Land and settle them there what astonishing victories did he often give them over their enemies when as the number of the Israelites was but small and the armies of the Aliens like to the sand of the Sea innumerable God made them formidable to all the nations about them Crowned them with admirable successes and made them glorious by an unusual train of providences He stopt the course of the Sun in the Heavens to make the longer day that they might have time enough to compleat the conquest of their Enemies Many times when the confidence of their foes was advanced when they threatned high and the Israelites were involved in apparent danger had no prospect of an escape then in their extremity has God brought them Salvation Now certainly ingenuity and gratitude should promote such a people so blessed so wonderfully preserved so signally owned by God to fear and serve him in truth and with all the heart Gratitude obliged them to a most punctual observance of all his Commands to a most cordial and sincere performance of all the duties he had prescribed them If God in an illustrious manner saves a people from ruine if he favours them with peculiar priveledges and advances them above their Neighbours by his